IT Solutions, Support, & Security Blog | iCorps Technologies

Public Sector Can Teach Businesses About IT Security

In today’s political and economic climate, many people believe the public sector is too expansive and needs to be trimmed. Some go even further and suggest that public sector organizations should be run more like a business.

However, can business learn anything from the public sector?

The answer to that is likely yes, particularly where information management is concerned.

Organizations collectively referred to as the "public sector" are local authorities, government-funded bodies, and the Civil Service. All deal directly with the public in one way or another and information collected must be kept secure.

This last point can be difficult because by law all public bodies must also make information they collect freely available when asked for it. This, however, can be problematic as much of it can be sensitive material.

Furthermore, public service entities are oftentimes under pressure to regularly monitor performance and keep costs down. These sorts of pressures while existing in business are not as stringently applied as they are in, for example, a local authority that is expected to balance its books each year.

What’s more, businesses in general can get advice from outside agencies such as iCorps or other consultancy firms. This may not be readily available with a public body.

However, despite the many challenges faced by the public sector it nevertheless manages to perform very well on many fronts including the use of IT. Therefore, perhaps a business can learn something after all.